Mizzou football DL Darius Robinson provides supplies for back-to-school drive

Darius Robinson has handed out his fair share of sacks on Saturdays.

But even through his four years as a frequent disruptor on the Mizzou defensive line, that number pales in comparison to his effort Saturday.

Community members were lined up out of Second Missionary Baptist Church and onto Fourth Street in Columbia long before Robinson gave away his first rucksack during his back-to-school giveaway. And before the evening was done, every last one of the 100 backpacks Robinson had provided, on his own dime, was taken.

The drive was deeply personal to the Mizzou defensive lineman. When he was growing up in Michigan, he remembers school supplies being the item he wished for.

So, when Robinson decided to return to play another season for Mizzou football back in December, he knew he wanted to give back.

“Football is a part of my life, but stuff like this is really meaningful to me,” he said. “So being able to (do this), it means a lot.”

Using his own money, some accrued from name, image and likeness deals, he decided to give back.

“(NIL) played a huge role,” Robinson said. “Because I paid for all this stuff myself, so it gave me the opportunity to do all that.”

To partner with Robinson’s effort, the church had a station set up for free haircuts in the back of the room. Plates of food were cycling out of a window to the right. On the far left, a table of toys and games were stacked up for the taking.

More for the kids: Face painting; gifts and prizes such as footballs and autographs from a raffle; an area to color and paint; a bounce house; basketball hoops.

No small order.

No small cost.

And no small amount of gratitude.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz was in attendance. A laundry list of Robinson’s teammates — Realus George Jr., Nathaniel Peat, Kristian Williams, and many, many more — stood shoulder to shoulder behind him.

Members and representatives of the church circled the room taking videos and photographs and sang his praises to all who would listen.

This isn’t a new event for the church, said Trina Boone, the church’s youth and young adult counselor.

The scale of it, however, was.

“We’ve always had a back-to-school thing, but being able to have somebody who brings in the backpacks with the supplies already in it, just things that we had to buy and it cost the church a lot of money,” Boone said. “So for him to come in and have this, and with the team coming out, putting his name out there, he advertised for us, we got a pretty good crowd.

“He has drawn in a lot of people.”

All told, more than 100 people came in and out the front door.

Adults with kids on either hand walked out with a backpack draped over each shoulder.

And long after all the bags and games and supplies had found a new owner, Robinson stuck around and took pictures and joked and chatted with the community that had showed up.

All possible, to the extent it occurred, because of Robinson.

“I'm really proud of Darius for giving back,” Drinkwitz said Saturday. “You know, we're blessed to be a blessing. And I think for him to understand that and actively give back, … I think it's just an attitude of gratitude. And that was actually something we talked about in our meeting today. As we talked about being emotionally consistent.”

“One of the ways you can do that is to view the world with an attitude of gratitude and understand that, you know, we're very fortunate and blessed to be here at Mizzou and the SEC,” the coach added. “Obviously, for student athletes, it's the best they've ever had it and it's gonna continue to get better, but they're blessed to be a blessing.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou DL Darius Robinson provides supplies for back-to-school drive